"We view a tablet as a PC", Mr. Lee states. He complains that using WP7 -- a mobile operating system -- on a tablet PC would be "in conflict" with Microsoft's vision.

Microsoft's decision to stick to its guns in the face of user demand has drawn criticism from some. They point out that Microsoft was pushing tablets as PCs five years ago, and controlled virtually all of the small tablet niche market. With the iPad and the explosion in popularity it became clear that people didn't necessarily want a full PC in their tablet. And yet that is exactly what Microsoft -- who now owns roughly a 1 percent share of the tablet market -- hopes to push.

For better or worse, though, the verdict appears final -- Microsoft's tablets will run Windows 8 late next fall, and until then will run Windows 7.

To be fair, Microsoft is making some serious changes to Windows 8 to make it more tablet friendly. While it isn't putting WP7 on the tablet, it is incorporating WP7's Metro (active tile) theme into Windows 8. So Windows 8 on the tablet will likely seem like a hybrid of WP7 and Windows 7.

Mike Angiulo, corporate vice president of Windows Planning, Hardware and PC Ecosystem at Microsoft says the goal of Windows 8 is to make the "user experience a natural extension of the device, from the time you turn on your PC through how you interact with the applications you know and love."

To that end Microsoft is working hard to make Windows 8 tablets and laptops easier to control with touch, easier to connect to networks, and easier to print documents wirelessly. Microsoft is also focusing on converting Windows 8 to run on ARM architecture CPUs, which are dominating the mobile architecture landscape, much to the chagrin of rival x86 architecture chipmaker Intel Corp. (INTC).

While Windows Phone 7 drew generally enthusiastic reviews for its cutting-edge user interface, the phone has experienced little traction in recent months. It is being grossly outsold by Apple, Inc. (AAPL) whose newest phone is over a year old. And it's also being outsold by market leader Google Inc. (GOOG) whose plethora of Android smart phones have soared in sales.

Steve Ballmer remarked last week that WP7 sales had gone from "very small to very small."

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All the Android tablets i've tried are pretty much cr*p, with exception of the Galaxy Tab. And i like Android. But it runs poorly and on tablets and it's still laggy (again Galaxy Tab does a better job here but not perfect), something that has been a MAJOR problem with Android since release is lag. Totally unacceptable. Now it finally has some hardware UI acceleration, but it's only partial and not good enough. WP7 and iOS run far smoother on lower hardware so theres no excuse.

From the builds if Win8 that i've used i've found them to run faster than Win7 on low spec hardware. Infact they easily run as good as XP does on old hardware, which is really impressive. But at the same time they run faster than XP on new hardware as it makes far better use of new tech.I just think MS should get Win8 out in mid 2012, not the end of it, thats too far away and no matter how good it is it might be too late by then.